1. Healthy plants resist insects and disease
Animals and people have immune systems for defense against pathogens and physical stressors. The same concept is true of plants. When plant nutrition is poorly balanced, their immunity is compromised, but when it’s optimized, plants can attain immune resistance against insects and disease.
2. Mineral nutrition supports plant immunity
To boost their immunity, plants create complex compounds through enzymes. Trace minerals are key ingredients in building enzymes. Without those minerals, enzyme pathways collapse, creating an abundance of simple compounds in the plant: an ideal food source for pests. This leads to infestation.
3. Microbial metabolites are a more efficient source of nutrition
The nutrients that plants absorb most efficiently are compounds produced by soil microbes. The soil microbe community serves as the plant digestive system: breaking down organic residues and root exudates. Minerals extracted from the soil matrix are released by microbes in bioavailable form. Plants can use these microbial metabolites much more efficiently than the simple ions contained in fertilizer.
4. Quality drives yield
Regenerative agriculture begins by improving plant health. As plant nutrition improves, energy and immunity of crops increase, creating higher yields, better shelf life, flavor, and reduced dependence on pesticides. As quality increases, yield can’t be stopped from following.
5. Healthy plants create health soil
While healthy soils can create healthy plants, the reverse is also true. Healthy plants send much of the sugar they produce through photosynthesis into the soil as root exudates. In turn, these sugars fuel soil microbial metabolism which releases carbon from the photosynthates into the soil environment, efficiently building soil organic matter.
